Sherrod blames NAACP for firing

The Agriculture Department official who has resigned after a video surfaced showing her saying she withheld assistance from a white farmer insisted on Tuesday that she really lost her job over the tea party’s clash with the NAACP.

A video of Shirley Sherrod, the department's Georgia director of rural development, telling an NAACP audience that she didn’t give a white farmer the “full force” of what she could provide, went viral Tuesday and prompted Sherrod to leave the department.

Story Continued Below

The NAACP condemned Sherrod’s comments in a statement, calling them “shameful.”

Asked about the NAACP’s actions during an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Sherrod said the only reason the video surfaced was in response to an NAACP resolution accusing the tea party of using “racist” tactics. “They got into a fight with the tea party, and all of this came out as a result of that,” Sherrod said.

The former Agriculture Department official also said she never heard from the NAACP to hear her side of the story prior to its statement on the video. “The NAACP has not tried to contact me one time, and that's why this happened,” she said. “I would have appreciated having the NAACP at least contact me … to try to get the truth about what happened.”

“I have done more to advance the causes of civil rights in this area than some of them who are sitting in those positions now with the NAACP,” Sherrod continued. “They need to learn something about me. They need to know about my work. They need to know what I have contributed through the years.”